Agriculture is the single largest sector of the country's economy, contributing 21 percent to the GDP and employing 44 percent of the workforce. More than two-third's of Pakistan's population lives in rural areas and their livelihood continues to revolve around agriculture and allied activities. Like other developing countries, poverty in the country is largely a rural phenomenon, therefore, development of agriculture can be a principal vehicle for alleviating poverty.

analysis
The diaspora enigma
All told the Muslim diaspora is a phenomenon that deserves a great deal of attention in explaining both the increasingly complexity of western societies and the rise of global Islamist movements, both overtly political as well as evangelical. In some ways the Muslim diaspora is one of the most obvious examples of 21st century globalization and its discontents.
By Aasim Sajjad Akhtar
The wanton killing of a dozen serving armymen by an Arab-American officer of the US army in Texas has garnered major attention across the world. The incident has induced a host of competing interpretations about the polarizations within contemporary western societies, the nature of modern American imperialism, and the rise and spread of reactionary ideologies amongst Muslim populations. Much of the comment has reinforced stereotypes rather than trying to bring those who claim to be committed to human betterment closer together.

trade
Standard compliance
Environment and safety standards are becoming a serious obstacle to international trade, particularly to market access for developing countries
By Hussain H. Zaidi
The basic purpose of health and safety standards is to protect human, animal and plant life as well as preserve the environment. A country's right to protect its consumers and environment against substandard products, both domestic and foreign, is uncontestable. The problem arises, however, when these standards are used to distort trade.

Neglecting a vital matter
In Karachi the street children can become fodder for terrorism!
By Dr Noman Ahmed
During a warm June afternoon along the pavements of M. A. Jinnah Road, some members of law enforcing agencies thrashed few adolescents. When questioned by a passer-by, they retorted that boys could be terrorists, as they had no identity card on them. And they confessed to have come from Swat. The visibly shaken lads, now in sobs, begged for the help of the conversing soul. They narrated their ordeal that their house in Mingora was destroyed in a shell attack and their parents killed. They simply ran for their lives and ended up in Karachi to search for a relative only to learn that he is no more. Now they have nowhere accepted the street as the only abode. After terse interrogation, the boys were left to their destiny to brave the ruthless streets of the metropolis.

Many countries of the world today boast scientific and technological advancements that would be undreamt of in centuries past. Their citizens have such a global access to resources that even the foods flown in fresh from all over the planet are taken for granted and daily menus are decoupled from the limitations of regional growing seasons and soils. These developments have focused so much on human-engineered and exotic sources of fulfillment that they divert attention from the local, biological underpinnings that remain essential to economic prosperity and other aspects of our well-being. These biological underpinnings are encompassed in the phrase 'ecosystem services', which refers to a wide range of conditions and processes through which natural ecosystems and the species that are part of them help to sustain human life.

These services maintain biodiversity and the production of ecosystem goods, such as wild game, forage, timber, non timber forest produces and many pharmaceuticals and industrial products. The harvest and trade of these goods play a vital role to support the livelihood of rural poor in Pakistan. Ecosystem offer services in the form of: purification of air and water, mitigation of droughts, decomposition of wastes, cycling of nutrients, maintenance of biodiversity, stabilisation of climate and provision of aesthetic beauty that lift the human spirit. Unfortunately, in most parts of the world, some regional ecosystem has refused to provide these services.

Although the distinction between 'natural' and 'human-dominated' ecosystems is becoming increasingly blurred, we emphasise the natural end of the spectrum, for three related reasons. First, the services flowing from natural ecosystems are greatly undervalued by society. The second reason to focus on natural ecosystems is that many human-initiated disruptions of these systems such as introductions of exotic species, extinctions of native species, and alteration of the gaseous composition of the atmosphere. Third, if awareness is not increased and current trends continue, humanity will dramatically alter earth's remaining natural ecosystems within a few decades.

The lack of attention to the vital role of natural ecosystem services is easy to understand. These services are so fundamental to life that they are easy to take for granted and so large in scale that it is hard to imagine that human activities could irreparably disrupt them. Perhaps a thought experiment that removes these services from the familiar backdrop of the earth is the best way to illustrate both the importance and complexity of ecosystem services. Imagine, for example, human beings trying to colonise the moon. Assume for the sake of argument that the moon had already miraculously acquired some of the basic conditions for supporting human life, such as an atmosphere, a climate, and a physical soil structure similar to those on earth. The big question facing human colonists would then be which of earth's millions of species would need to be transported to the moon to make that sterile surface habitable and hospitable.

One could tackle that question systematically by first choosing from among all the species exploited directly for food, drink, spices, fibre, timber, pharmaceuticals, and industrial products such as waxes, rubber, and oils. Even if one were highly selective, the list could amount to hundreds or even thousands of species. And that would only be a start, since one would then need to consider which species are crucial to supporting those used directly: the bacteria, fungi, and invertebrates that help make soil fertile and break down wastes and organic matter; the insects, bats, and birds that pollinate flowers; and the grasses, herbs, and trees that hold soil in place, regulate the water cycle, and supply food for animals. The clear message of this exercise is that no one knows which combinations of species or even approximately how many are required to sustain human life.

Let us take soil fertility as an example. Soil organisms are crucial to the chemical conversion and physical transfer of essential nutrients to higher plants. But the abundance of soil organisms is absolutely staggering. Under a square-yard of tropical ecosystem, for instance, the soil is inhabited by roughly 50,000 small earthworms and their relatives; 50,000 insects and mites, and nearly 12 million roundworms. And that tally is only the beginning. The number of soil animals is tiny compared to the number of soil microorganisms: a pinch of fertile soil may contain over 30,000 protozoa, 50,000 algae, 400,000 fungi, and billions of individual bacteria  Which must colonists bring to the moon to assure lush and continuing plant growth, soil renewal, waste disposal, and so on? Most of these soil-dwelling species have never been subjected to even cursory inspection: no human eye has ever blinked at them through a microscope, no human hand has ever typed out a name or description of them, and most human minds have never spent a moment reflecting on them. Yet the sobering fact is, they don't need us, but we need them.

Humanity obtains from natural ecosystems an array of ecosystem goods organisms and their parts and products that grow in the wild and that are used directly for human benefit. For instance, the annual world fish catch, amounts to about 100 million metric tons and is valued at about US$100 billion; it is the leading source of animal protein, with over 20% of the population in Africa and Asia dependent on fish as their primary source of protein. Turning our attention to the land is an important source of marketable goods, including animals used for labour and those whose parts or products are consumed. It is the original source habitat for most domestic animals and as well as for crops. Natural ecosystems also produce vegetation used directly by humans as food, timber/fire wood and pharmaceuticals products. Fruits, nuts, mushrooms, honey and other foods are extracted from forest ecosystem. In addition, natural products extracted from many hundreds of species contribute diverse inputs to industry: gums and exudates, essential oils and flavorings, resins and oleoresins, dyes, tannins, vegetable fats and waxes, insecticides, and multitudes of other compounds. The availability of most of these natural products is in decline due to ongoing human population explosion coupled with habitat conversion. 

Biodiversity refers to the variety of life forms at all levels of organisation which is generated and maintained in natural ecosystems, where organisms encounter a wide variety of living conditions and chance events that shape their evolution in unique ways. Generally, the flow of ecosystem goods and services in a region is determined by the type, spatial layout, extent, and proximity of the ecosystems supplying them. Biodiversity supplies the genetic and biochemical resources that underpin our current agricultural and pharmaceutical enterprises and may allow us to adapt these vital enterprises to global change. Our ability to increase crop productivity in the face of new pests, diseases, and other stresses has depended heavily upon the transfer to our crops of genes from wild crop relatives that confer resistance to these challenges. Such extractions from biodiversity's 'genetic library' account for annual increases in crop productivity of about one percent, currently valued at $1 billion.

Biotechnology now makes possible even greater use of this natural storehouse of genetic diversity via the transfer to crops of genes from any kind of organism, not simply crop relatives and it promises to play a major role in future yield increases. Human beings have utilised around 7,000 plant species for food over the course of history and another 70,000 plants are known to have medicinal value. Regarding pharmaceutical plants, the recent survey showed that of the top 150 prescription drugs used in the United States and Europe, 118 are based on natural sources: 74% on higher plants, 18% on fungi, 5% on bacteria, and 3% on one vertebrate (snake) species. The commercial value of pharmaceuticals in the developed nations exceeds $40 billion per year. Looking at the global picture, approximately 80% of the human population relies on traditional medicines, and about 85% of traditional medicine use of plant extracts.

Earth's climate has fluctuated tremendously since humanity came into being. Climate plays a major role in the evolution and distribution of life over the planet and life itself is a principal factor in the regulation of global climate. For instance, natural ecosystems may have helped to stabilise climate and prevent overheating of the earth by removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Life may also exert a destabilising or positive feedback that reinforces climate change. Ecosystem services are being impaired and destroyed by a wide variety of human activities. The most irreversible of human impacts on ecosystems is the loss of native biodiversity. A conservative estimate of the rate of species loss is about one per hour, which unfortunately exceeds the rate of evolution of new species by a factor of 10,000 or more. Destroying other life forms also disrupts the web of interactions that could help us discover the potential usefulness of specific plants and animals. Other imminent threats include the alteration of the biogeochemical cycles through the burning of fossil fuels and heavy use of nitrogen fertiliser; degradation of farmland through unsustainable agricultural practices and overharvesting of managed forests. These threats to ecosystem services are driven ultimately by two broad underlying forces. One is rapid, unsustainable growth in the scale of the human enterprise: in population size and in per-capita consumption. The other underlying driver is the frequent mismatch between short-term, individual economic incentives and long-term, societal well-being. There is a critical need for policy measures that address these driving forces and embed the value of ecosystem services into decision making frameworks.

Finally, the human economy depends upon the services performed 'for free' by ecosystems. The ecosystem services supplied annually are worth many trillions of dollars. Economic development that destroys habitats and impairs services can create costs to humanity over the long term that may greatly exceed the short-term economic benefits of the development. These costs are generally hidden from traditional economic accounting, but are nonetheless real and are usually borne by society at large. Tragically, a short-term focus in land-use decisions often sets in motion potentially great costs to be borne by future generations. This suggests a need for policies that achieve a balance between sustaining ecosystem services and pursuing the worthy short-term goals of economic development.

Agriculture is the single largest sector of the country's economy, contributing 21 percent to the GDP and employing 44 percent of the workforce. More than two-third's of Pakistan's population lives in rural areas and their livelihood continues to revolve around agriculture and allied activities. Like other developing countries, poverty in the country is largely a rural phenomenon, therefore, development of agriculture can be a principal vehicle for alleviating poverty.

Some six years ago, the Provincial Government of NWFP had started work on a mega hydro-electric power project Malakand-III which was not only supposed to produce cheap hydel power, but also to provide irrigation water to barani (rain-fed) area outside the command area of the existing Upper Swat Canal. The project has since been successfully completed.

The east Baizai area of Mardan comprising Kohi Barmol, Pipal, Ghazi Baba, Mian Khan, Sangahoo, Baboozai, Shamozai and Matta villages lack the facility of irrigation water and are totally dependent on rain for agriculture. These villages comprise about 21,000 acres of barren land and were included in Malakand-III Project. Baizai Irrigation Scheme was proposed to irrigate lands of these villages. The Scheme was to start from Wartair Dobandi (Malakand) to Matta Katlang (Mardan) and a feasibility study of the scheme has already been completed. The irrigation scheme originally was estimated to cost almost Rs.1600 million. However, now the cost has been upwardly revised in view of escalating prices. The Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) of the Federal Government in its meeting held in March, 2009 has approved the Ministry of Water and Power and the Government of NWFP's joint project titled "Baizai Irrigation Scheme" located in the districts of Mardan and Malakand at a total cost of Rs.1800 million for provision of better irrigation water facilities to an area of about 20,200 acres through the constructionIt is pertinent to mention here that underground water table has dropped down to an alarming level. Besides, there is also an acute shortage of drinking water in the area.

The completion of this vital project would help in reclaiming thousands of areas of barren land in Mardan District and Malakand Agency which would be a significant step towards self-sufficiency in the agriculture sector. It is also hoped that it will bring green revolution in the area and will play an active role in the country's economy. 

The Federal Government is humbly requested to allocate sufficient funds for this vital project while the provincial Government of NWFP is requested to accelerate the pace of work on it so that the project could be completed as early as possible and the inhabitants of the area could bene

Tobacco industry employs over three million persons directly or indirectly in the farming, manufacturing, distribution and retailing sectors. The industry contributes billions to the national kitty in federal excise duty (FED), custom duty, sales tax (ST), income tax, tobacco cess and tobacco development cess (TDC). It also saves dozens of billions by saving imports of cigarettes besides earning millions in exports.

Experts, officials and farmers say that it could fetch around 100 billions if the illegal cigarette manufacturing and trade is halted, all tobacco companies are brought under tax-net and the tax exemptions allowed in schedule three of the Federal Excise Act 2005 are withdrawn.

FED on un-manufactured tobacco is Rs5 per kilogram. Locally produced cigarettes have FED of 64 per cent and Rs4.65 per ten cigarettes for different types. ST is charged at 16 percent of the cigarette price.

TDC is collected by the provincial excise and taxation department. It is used for the development of infrastructure in the tobacco-growing areas. An official of the NWFP excise department said that in FY 2008, the department collected over Rs211 million in TDC.

Tobacco Cess is meant for the research and development initiatives of the Pakistan tobacco board (PTB). The PTB collected over Rs60 million in 2007 in tobacco cess.

Exports of tobacco and cigarettes amounted to Rs767 million in 2003-04 and Rs673million in 2004-05 but then nosedived to Rs386m and Rs570m in next two years. Exports could touch billions if cigarette manufacturing is increased, their standard is improved and new markets are discovered.

FCV, Burley, White Patta (Rustica), dark air cured (DAC) and Hookah tobaccos are grown in Pakistan. The first two- main cigarette tobaccos- are grown mostly in NWFP and the last two in Punjab and Sindh.

NWFP accounts for over 98 percent of FCV production. Charsadda, Mardan, Swabi, Malakand Agency, Mansehra, Buner and Lower Dir are FCV specific areas in the province.

NWFP had 15 of the 22 cigarette manufacturing plants in 2007 while Sindh had two and Punjab five of them. Six of those in NWFP were closed while four each worked in one and two shifts. These all had an installed capacity of 44.5 million cigarettes that equalled to 42.5 for four plants in Punjab. The non-functional units should be made functional; shifts should be increased and new high yielding units should be built in the province.

The area under tobacco cultivation has been fluctuating. For FCV, it was 27 thousand hectares in 1999 but went down to 21 thousand the next year. In 2003, it was 20 thousand but surged to 26 and 29 thousand in 2004 and 2005 and again dropped to 25 thousand in next two years.

However, per hectare yield is on the rise. It was 2434 kg/per hectare in 2003-04 for FCV but jumped up to 2623 kg till 2006-07. For DAC tobacco, grown in Punjab, the yield grew from 1938 in 2003-04 to 2343, 2991 and 3419 kg per hectare in that period.

It is believed the country could easily double the current tobacco yield. From 2001 to 2006, the average tobacco production was recorded for FCV at 60 million kg as against the potential of 90 million kg. Overall the country produced an average about 94 million kg of tobacco crop against the possibility of 120 million kg.

Unconfirmed reports suggest that authorities had banned cultivation of tobacco and maize crop in the area due to fear of its misuse by militants. Officials also confirm that tobacco yield may be low by around 30 to 40 percent this year.

"In most of the tobacco-rich Malakand division there was no crop this year as the labour intensive tobacco crop had none to look after. The fertile southern part of NWFP and tribal belt is having no or very limited tobacco cultivation. Again, tobacco farmers are increasingly shifting to cash/food crops for better incomes," they opined.

Tobacco prices have always been a source of tension between the growers and tobacco companies. A PTB official said that tobacco was the most price protected crop. "Its price increases each year legally. The tobacco companies, manufacturers and other buyers are bound to pay in a particular year prices more than the preceding year. The federal ministry of agriculture fixes the prices after conducting different surveys and taking into consideration the cost of production and other factors."

He said that weighted average price (WAP) for FCV had been fixed at Rs98 per kg this year. "It is the minimum price. Tobacco companies last year paid upto Rs100 per kg to growers against the official rate of Rs82."

However, several farmers demanded that WAP for FCV be fixed at Rs150 per kg as urged by the Senate Standing Committee on Food, Agriculture and Livestock last year.

A Mardan-based farmer said all tobacco purchase centres should procure crop from farmers. "It has been noted that some depots delay procurement. This goes against farmers who don't have storage facility for their crop. Tobacco companies should start purchase in time to avoid this situation."

Though there are 31 tobacco companies in the country but very few contribute to national exchequer. In 2006-07, out of Rs34.6 billion as FED, Rs34.4bn were paid by two tobacco companies while rest of tobacco industries paid the remaining amount. In 2008, the two companies contributed around Rs47 billion in different tobacco taxes. Other companies pay meagre or negligible taxes while a large number of units don't pay any taxes at all.

Pakistan is the 7th largest producer of FCV tobacco in the world. According to an estimate, around 78 billion cigarettes are produced in the country while just 65 billion sticks are on record resulting in tax evasion in billions. Smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes cause loss to the legitimate companies, public revenue targets and discourage foreign investment.

The 2008 annual report of a tobacco company states that continued availability of the local untaxed products are detrimental to a level playing field. Tax-evaders harvest bulk of the market returns by damaging the legitimate manufacturers and harm the public revenue capabilities, it adds.

The Senate Standing Committee on Food, Agriculture and Livestock also said last year that huge tax was being misappropriated due to concealment of tobacco production and consumption.

There are also apprehensions that government and tobacco companies conceal the total area under cultivation of tobacco and yield per hectare.

According to PTB's website, tobacco was cultivated on 33,000 hectares in 2007-08 with a production of 85,000 tons. But it is believed that the area under tobacco cultivation is around 50,000 hectares with a yield of around 120,000 tons.

Though around 98 percent of tobacco used for manufacturing cigarettes is produced in NWFP, it has not proportionately benefited. The NWFP chief minister is reported to have said that like wheat, tobacco was a provincial subject, but the centre was collecting its taxes which, he said, was not fair.

An official said that NWFP would have been receiving 98 percent of the tobacco revenues if that FED and ST on tobacco were levied on farm-produce in place of manufacturing point.

But an expert said NWFP could not benefit even if cigarette manufacturing plants are set up here unless the tobacco taxes are combined into a tax and its collection given to provinces. 

"Tobacco growers should be given membership in vigilance committee responsible for grading the tobacco by companies. This would ensure that no purchaser unnecessarily rejects, or pays tobacco growers less than official rates," added the expert. "The government and tobacco companies should provide loans and subsidies to tobacco growers for purchase of agricultural inputs in time," he said.

A tobacco farmer from Swabi said the provincial government should establish a NWFP Tobacco Corporation in line with Punjab Rice Corporation for its tobacco crop. Farmers also urged a special development package for the tobacco-specific areas in the province.

In a society where education has not been a priority for 60 years and it has presently started to anticipate that if it is not now than never. But the million-dollar question is how to penetrate the primitive thinking of the part of our society, which is still living in the Stone Age? For the government mere slogans and courtesy publicity shall not derive desired results and will only result in more desperation and criticism for them. Educational Guru's will continue to prove their thrilling ideas as the best solution but not many will benefit.

Hence, what is the way forward? Like all previous regimes on education this one is not as clever as it may look and it is aimed at benefiting very few. Still many in Balochistan, NWFP and some areas of Sindh and Punjab can "see no evil, hear no evil"

I feel our approach in the regard needs to be readdressed since this is an effort on the behest of taxpayer money and need careful consideration.

Though our spending on education reforms is peanuts of our GDP and shows our outrageous approach in this regard. However how can we produce results with this inadequate means? The biggest challenge is to smartly induce different type of audience here. Ones who have no knowledge of what we are talking. Some don't even have access to cable TV, some are bombing schools since they think it is interfacing with religion, some are successful in small businesses hence knowledge is not important to them. Some want to be educated but don't have the means, some are educated and want to pursue higher education, some are literate but not educated therefore how can we possibly treat all these as uniform? How can we have standardised policy for people with different backgrounds, culture, traditions, mindset and appetite? Even in big cities you will across parents who are reluctant to send their children to coeducation schools, are more inclined to religious studies, and have limited exposure then what to expect from rural Pakistan.

While there can be and should be commonalities in the medium of education and policy but across the board cultural and traditional barriers will have to be effectively dealt with.  Since does it mean anything to the residents of Chaghi and Wana that schooling up to grade 10 will be free? When they don't even know if knowledge exists? We need to have a multifaceted policy for this kind of environment. Otherwise will be wasting valuable time, tax payer's money, resources and energy and only few will benefit and yet again we will be fighting against time.

The government should rightly assume the role of a driver and monitor only. Engage the provinces to implement this policy. The government should take charge of the higher education and education up to high school should be a provincial subject in the true sense. Government should ensure uniform syllabus throughout the provinces. Must define and implement a uniform curriculum for both public and private schools. Equality in curriculum is essential since it is a matter of our future. Inequality in curriculum in Pakistan is the root cause of all social upheavals in our society. Privileged class discriminates with ordinary school graduates. This gives rise to the creation of society within society and your own schools become the breeding ground of social bifurcation. This must be checked at our school level since it is our pupils who have to set example in the society and society is defined at school level through reforms and monitoring.

The government along with the provincial government needs to divide areas according to the environment and mindset of the people to effectively implement its policy and reforms in education. In some areas of Punjab and Sindh free education up to high school matters and will be appreciated. But then in more remote area of Balochistan and NWFP a different strategy must be adopted to produce results, though the strategy should be based on providing free but effective means of education. Education that will ultimately help these children to live respectively thus adding to the growth of our country, after all there is an object behind this effort.

Policy without an object will be a failure; our aim of educated Pakistan is to achieve our main objective that is prosperity. The education policy cannot be ordinary any greed in this regard will clearly show that it is a mere slogan. Education is one area that should be disengaged from politic. Non-political, less social elite should be into this venture. The educational model in Europe in US must be studied carefully since it has proved to be the most effective way to have an educated society. Their focus is not on PhD's, Masters or Bachelor degree for that matter. Their focus is education and literacy, which they ensure through best high school techniques now being adopted by many in Asia and other countries.

Majority of the human resource working in Europe and America is normally a high school graduate but highly educated and skilled. Due to poor quality of education being provided to our high school graduates whom we normally call intermediates are unable to find suitable positions in companies. Our intermediates have inadequate education and lack basic mannerism is unemployed. After all education is not just literacy but good mannerism and etiquettes as well. No society can bench mark minimum literacy criteria as Bachelor of Arts or MBA or Graduate Engineer but a literate educated working class through a reformed high school curriculum and practices. An affective High school curriculum should be social studies, history i.e. world history in general and regional history in particular that rightly depicts partition of the subcontinent, geography and arithmetic, English Language and grammar, more emphasis on computer literacy and sports. Today majority of high school graduates in the west who give up studies at this stage become professional sportsmen due to their active participation in sports at high school level since it is part of the reforms. Urdu should be taught as a language and Islamiyat should be extracurricular. Islamiyat should be taught by a qualified teacher and not by some can add twist and their own interpretation to Islamic Studies.

The recent generation of extremist in our society were taught Islam in a language which has proven to be reckless for our society and is living proof of our ignorance to this subject. Selection of the teachers is another fundamental aspect of educational reform. Only those pupils will actually qualify whose teachers are mentally and physically fit and qualified to teach. Whether public or private schools the fate of our children should not be given in the hands of teachers who are not qualified. Who have not been through a bachelor of teaching degree, have not passed a psychological test, who have not been abused as a child themselves, who have no agenda of their own. Private schools prefer to go after good looks and fine English accent and the result is devastating since alone English with no brains will not help us. Career counselling practice at high school should be adopted and only pupils with the right attitude, aptitude and grades should be channelised into professional studies.

One medium of education must be adopted and for various reasons I am afraid it has to be in English since we did not reproduce medium of education effectively into Urdu and the lingua franca at government level and private sector and professional studies is in English as well. While it would have been nice to have our medium of education in Urdu but it is too late and any adventurous approach in the regard will be counterproductive. A check on NGO's driven on the command of religious extremism and funding is necessary since we have all witness what havoc they have created in our society. All this happened since our government turned a blind eye towards their role. In return we got suicide bombers and assassinators, sick and abused students thus sick society. A strong and smart mechanism must be adopted and the reason it has to be a "must" is because we have no time for experiments.

Email rashmehr@yahoo.co.uk

A cursory glance at the National Education Policy (NEP) 2009, may have a reader beguiled into thinking that the policy is a comprehensive document, eliciting fine details encompassing all areas of the education sector, reflecting a faithful portrayal of its shortcomings and failures, successfully identifying major underlying problems, making recommendations, and highlighting the requirement of a paradigm shift in line with a VISION for the country's education system in the 21st Century. However, a closer study of the document reveals that the policy is lacking in more than one areas of concern in the given sector. One such glaring omission in the document is lack of attention toward the 'ENVIRONMENT'.

The United Nations General Assembly has declared 2005-2014 the UN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD), identifying two goals for the decade:

To provide an opportunity for refining and promoting the vision of, and transition to, sustainable development – through all forms of education, public awareness and training;

To give an enhanced profile to the important role of education and learning in sustainable development.

Sustainable Development is defined by The World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) as 'Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. Sustainable Development (SD) requires balancing environmental, societal, and economic considerations in the pursuit of development and an improved quality of life. It has been acknowledged that there is no 'single route' to sustainable development, and visions for sustainability will be different in different societies. This paradigm shift requires reorientation of education systems. UNESCO emphasises the role of education in shaping attitudes, values, and behavior, while developing the capacities, skills, and commitments needed for building a sustainable future.

Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) is a vision of education that seeks to empower people to assume responsibility for creating a sustainable future. ESD strives for an equal opportunity for all to benefit from education, and learn the values, behaviors, and lifestyles required for a sustainable future and for positive social transformation. The values held in a society help define how personal decisions are made and how national legislation is written (UNESCO, 2005). Various approaches to ESD encourage people to understand the complexities of, and synergies between, the issues threatening planetary sustainability, understand, and assess their own values and those of the society to which they belong in the context of sustainability. If ESD is to be an effective tool for a sustainable future, it must first address the way we think about sustainable development and about education in general. In this context, dissemination of Environmental Education (EE) is considered the best means for achieving the goals of ESD.

With respect to the aforementioned backdrop of declarations enunciated by the UN/UNESCO, NEP 2009 fails to not only address but also to redress the issues of ESD in the country's perspective.

The salient features of NEP 2009 broadly entail:

Equity in Education, The Challenges, The Deficiencies, Commitment and Implementation gaps, Means of Achieving Access and Raising the Quality of Education, Skill Development and Innovation, as well as Vision 2030.

All the above are excellent indicators for identification of issues as well as reform strategies in education. However, while addressing the all-important issue of equity having serious implications for sustainability, and sustainable economic development in face of the global competitive milieu, reference to ESD, the only means of achieving these ends has not been made. The major deficiencies inclusive of the commitment and implementation gaps correctly state that an education system cannot remain in isolation in the global context. With regards to filling the commitment gap, priorities for attaining economic and social goals are earmarked alongside enunciation for policy action including, universal and free education, equity/elimination of social exclusion, quality improvement, promotion of innovation in economy, research based education at higher level, and challenges and opportunities related to globalisation.

Aspects like policy coherence, public/private, structural divides, stakeholder involvement, indicate features of the implementation gap. However, achieving the targets of equity, quality and coherence may never see light without reference to provision of EE.

The policy recommendations for broadening the base, improving access and raising the quality of education bring to light the long term positive effects of Early Childhood Education (ECE) on employment, labour force participation and earnings, with a complete disconnect of the above with the environment, overlooking the importance of interaction with the immediate environment for building an aware and sensitive citizenry. Likewise, for the Secondary and Higher Secondary Levels, the policy document stresses preparing the youth for life by providing skills to the labour market, completely sidetracking the environmental component. Introduction of more student-centred pedagogies is present, again, without specific reference to provision of EE.

Technical Vocational Education (TVE) related mainly to industrial development, requires reorientation of the education system with inclusion of ESD for addressing environmental issues, related, from variety in skill training, to green productivity, to tapping traditional knowledge. Ironically, NEP, in this sector, addresses the biggest environmental issue of over population in terms of an 'endowment' in the labor market. Policy actions as proposed by NEP in this respect take 'local conditions' into account, without reference to local environmental conditions. All TVE is environment dependent, since it is the environment that dictates the necessity of provision of facility in the face of availability of resource. Higher education is the instrument for translating a knowledge-based economy into reality. The surest route for translating this realization into reality is to address the route to sustainability i.e. ESD. The much-avowed goals of service to society and sustainability can be achieved only by incorporating EE into the curriculum. The sector of non-formal education refers to positive relation between literacy and productivity without entailing EE, which is pivotal for green productivity. Education in emergencies and promotion of managerial skills in these conditions is only possible when students are provided information and given first hand experience in the environment for dealing with emergencies.

The importance of EE, the above target areas is mentioned without specific reference to the environmental aspect. The immediate concern for inclusion of environmental element into teacher training programs is gravely missing. The quality of teaching does not mention personal initiative by the teacher vis-à-vis the environment. Local resources mentioned do not take into account the environment from which these are made available.

The one and only mention of environmental education within curricular reform is its inclusion as part of Early Education. A high performing system fuelled by data/information that is timely, valid and accurate is impossible to achieve without EE. While policy action raises a point related to introduction of service to society, it is also one of the core themes of EE i.e. citizenship. However, NEP is oblivious to sensitising the most important stakeholder i.e. citizenry, toward its local environment. The NEP analyses problems and issues hampering the development of education in Pakistan, and outlines a wide range of reforms and policy actions to be taken and pursued in a coordinated federal-inter-provincial process. It is an excellent declaration of intent. However, education is a living process, so is the environment, since it is dynamic and subject to change. The direct relationship between the two, require a correlation to be drawn and worked upon, if the system of education in the country is to see dynamism.

The pertinent question that arises in the face of The National Education Policy 2009 is, how does the Government of Pakistan propose to tread the road to sustainable development without addressing the issue of sustainability and without incorporating the environmental aspect into mainstream education?

The wanton killing of a dozen serving armymen by an Arab-American officer of the US army in Texas has garnered major attention across the world. The incident has induced a host of competing interpretations about the polarizations within contemporary western societies, the nature of modern American imperialism, and the rise and spread of reactionary ideologies amongst Muslim populations. Much of the comment has reinforced stereotypes rather than trying to bring those who claim to be committed to human betterment closer together.

At the heart of this whole debate is the question of the Muslim diaspora. As is well-known, Islam is the fastest growing religion in North America and Western Europe, in large part because of the massive influx of immigrant populations from Muslim countries over the past few decades. The influence of these immigrants has been significant enough that right-wing xenophobes have become increasingly influential within the political mainstream of the western world. There are examples of extreme-right politicians who have made gains in recent times but there are also figures such as the French president Nikolas Sarkozy who has embraced an anti-immigrant stance for much of his political life.

The Muslim diaspora in the western countries is basically composed of two classes. On the one hand there are the relatively unskilled working class immigrants who came to western Europe in a big way after WWII. Then there are the high-skilled professionals who settled mostly in North America after the 1960s. These two different classes have different sensibilities, links to their homeland and political tendencies. But Islamists have attracted members of both classes into their fold.

For the unskilled working class, the attraction towards political Islam can be explained in relatively straightforward material terms. Unskilled migrants and their children are the main targets of racism, and have been particularly hard hit by the reaction to the events to September 11. For the skilled professional class the ideological dimension is much more pronounced. Many doctors and engineers who immigrated to the western world from Muslim countries have taught their children to embrace Islam as a primary identity in a world in which identity crises have become ever more conspicuous. For this educated class, Maulana Maudoodi and Syed Qutb are inspirations, and pan-Islamism is often viewed as a moral and ethical ideal.

It is this class that sends money back home for 'Islamic' causes, just like it is the affluent Hindu diaspora that is the biggest supporter of the Hindu right in India. This class is far from willing to give up the material comforts of metropolitan life but at the same time is committed to an 'Islamic' ideal which is actualized by political Islamists.

This apparent contradiction reflects a couple of important realities. First, political Islam is modernist in ideological, organizational and political terms. It might invoke revivalism but in the final analysis its goal is the creation of a unified 'Ummah' in today's world rather than a return to pre-modern ways of living. Second, there is no fundamental cultural divide at work here. Things are far too complex for such simple binaries. After all if Muslims committed to Maudoodi's and Qutb's ideas are entirely comfortably living in western countries then where is the contradiction between 'Islam' and the 'West'?

As far as Pakistan is concerned the diaspora in the Gulf countries is also very influential, both in material terms and the ideational sense. The majority of migrants to the Gulf have hailed historically from rural Punjab and NWFP and the remittances that they have sent back home have led to a tremendous increase in wealth and mobility. They have also brought home with them an overt commitment to orthodoxy in terms of personal religiosity as well as institutional uplift (in terms of support to local religious constituencies). Here again, there is no contradiction between increased attachment to material consumption (of goods and services mostly produced in the western world) and commitment to religious orthodoxy.

All told the Muslim diaspora is a phenomenon that deserves a great deal of attention in explaining both the increasingly complexity of western societies and the rise of global Islamist movements, both overtly political as well as evangelical. In some ways the Muslim diaspora is one of the most obvious examples of 21st century globalization and its discontents.

An example will be made of Major Nidal just like others before him. But the fact of the matter is that western governments and commentators are stuck between a rock and a hard place, as reflected in their vacillation between invocations of 'Islamo-fascism' on the one hand and 'multiculturalism' on the other. Just the same way, Muslim societies are supposedly divided between 'rational-modernists' on the one hand and 'revivalists' on the other. To some extent such a characterization is accurate. But at the same time if not contextualized it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is imperative that those committed to peace and understanding across cultures prevent this from happening. This is the task that faces all of us today and it requires us to go beyond identifications along parochial lines.

Recently, US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, visited Pakistan and met people from diverse professions. Much has been said about her "straight talk," her "charm offensive," so on and so forth. In terms of US-Pakistan relations, the visit was off-the-mark for two obvious reasons.

First of all, Clinton's handshake with Pakistan is not the first time when US is reaching out to Pakistan. In the past, US had a very close relation with Pakistan. Nonetheless, in the past, the case on both sides was represented by two different parties. While in Pakistan, it used to be the military, the US's case was represented by the Republican Party. Today, there is a shift.

As known, the Democrats have come to power in last year's election. The liberal Democrats widely differ from their rivals, the Republicans, on security issues. Largely, while hard-core realism is associated with the Republicans, the Democrats try to look beyond military might only. The more conservative a Republican is, the more obsessed he (yes, he) is about looking the world through the security prism.

A reason why Pakistan's military rulers are able to become closer ally with US is because military's world revolves around security, and it presents its case for being a good defender – something countries around the world look for. With US, the military find good buddies in shape of Republican Presidents; namely Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961), Richard Nixon (1969-1974), Ronald Reagan (1981-1989), and Bush Jr. (2001-2009). Remember how 'Pakistan' liked McCain for his understanding of Pakistan.

The reason why the Republicans went along with the military in Pakistan was the convergence or the depiction of convergence of interests between the two countries. These interests, again, are pure security-centric. It was this relation that provided military bases to US in Pakistan, chased the Soviets out of Afghanistan, and went on to chases the militants in the post-9/11 world. Obviously, that came at a cost in Pakistan with security paradigm overriding foreign and even national policies.

Today, in a way, Democrats have met democrats! Whether it will last and move on is to be seen.

Secondly, new trends are being made when it comes to relationships between the states. As shared, in the past, hardcore military relations were a norm. This time, another new feature of Hillary Clinton's visit to Pakistan was her meetings with the members of the civil society.

The present world structure revolves around state's importance. It is state which makes the decisions on behalf of the country. At least, the concept of security is statist in its definition; state's significance amplifies when there is a war. Little wonders, Pakistan's case was represented by the military in the past. Over the period of time, the emergence of civil society challenges the state in making decision on their behalf.

However, there are challenges to it. The difficulty from foreign state in reaching out to a segment of society in the host state stems from the fear of creating an impression of controlling that state. That is why host states obsessed with securities would never allow it. Even pragmatism would dictate that foreign states should only meet state because of the power a state enjoys.

A case in point is the lawyers' movement for the restoration of the judges. Now that the judge is being restored, questions are being put to the United States as to why it didn't support the movement. In fact, the lead activist and lawyer, Aitzaz Ahsan, wrote to US to identify the real support base in Pakistan. US didn't; more because it was easy with Musharraf who held state's powers.

When critics wonder that US lost an opportunity, one believes that they are over-expecting the responsibilities of a foreign state. What is forgotten is that the US civil society did reach out to the lawyers' movement; in fact, the top judge brought laurels for Pakistan by being honoured one of the most coveted medals, the Harvard's Medal of Freedom.

Clinton's meetings try to make a shift. The debate here is not about who won or who lost in the exchange, it is about the influence of civil society and the innovation on the part of US, which every observer should welcome.

Far from welcoming, these meetings were marked with a rise of anti-Americanism among the people she met. First, she met a group of anchorpersons who asked her about the conditions in the Kerry-Lugar bill. Later, in one of her meetings with the civil society, she met students of Government College University (GCU), Lahore. There, she was asked questions related to drone and to the historic mistrust between the two countries.

Pakistanis need to ask if the mistrust they are talking about was really between the people and the US or between the military and US administration. Patriotic zeal aside, the reference is towards the military rules, which have been equally unpopular in Pakistan. For once we need to make up our minds.

By looking into our history, we will be able to find the roots of anti-Americanism so as to be clear next time. When the world was divided into two poles during the Cold War, the right-wing in Pakistan sided with America against the Soviet for what it termed as 'godless Communism.' Back then, the left's dislike was centered on economic policies. However, after the Soviet empire crumbled, the US emerged as the only superpower. The hard-core leftists still remain focused against the US while they were joined in by the rightists too. Later, the ideologies inter-mixed. What many, not least the right-wing, did was sheer plagiarism: they copied all the arguments that criticized US's free-market economic policies and painted it a religious colour. Little wonder that today's worst critic of US in Pakistan try to impress the audience by speaking how US economic system is aimed at controlling the Muslim world.

Thus, what once used to be a literature to rectify the economic policies in the third-world countries have now become text of a speech at a pulpit. See how Iranian President Ahmedinejad is a close buddy of Venezuelan's President Hugo Chavez; you should be hardly surprised to note that William Blum's "Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower" is a favorite book of Osama bin Laden – he even recommended it.

Super-power status always hit you. US is an interesting case because on the one hand, its global reality makes it a super power, on the other hand, its ideals force it to interact with students of GCU and even listen to them. This brings dilemmas. Even if your end is to exert widest influence, your means ask you to tread cautiously. When you show power, everyone is mummed. When you speak about ideals, people question you. In Pakistan, no one asked 'tough' security-related questions from Musharraf when he was in power, but it is easy to ask from Clinton because the apparatus under her will not harass the participants.

More of this may come from the Democrats, whose consensus-seeking on Afghanistan has already frustrated its allies. New trends mark new challenges!

The basic purpose of health and safety standards is to protect human, animal and plant life as well as preserve the environment. A country's right to protect its consumers and environment against substandard products, both domestic and foreign, is uncontestable. The problem arises, however, when these standards are used to distort trade.

The health and safety standards are covered by two WTO agreements: the Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and the Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS).

The TBT agreement deals with regulations or standards pertaining to product characteristics, process and production methods (PPMs) bearing upon product quality, and product packaging and labelling. Member countries are entitled to adopt the standards they deem adequate to protect life or environment or safeguard consumer interests and take measures to ensure their standards are met. The objectives for which countries can enforce technical regulations include national security, prevention of deceptive practices, protection of human animal and plant life and environment preservation. However, the agreement makes it a point to ensure that these standards or regulations do not become an obstacle to international trade. Moreover, these standards have to be applied in conformity with both the MFN and national treatment principles so that there is no discrimination among imported products by origin or between imported products on one hand and those produced domestically on the other in terms of regulations. The regulations as much as possible have to have a scientific basis and should not unnecessarily obstruct international trade.

Regulations enforced under the SPS agreement are meant to protect human, animal and plant life from food-borne diseases, human beings from animal or plant carried diseases and animals and plants from pests and diseases.

The WTO acknowledges its members' right to protect the environment. According to Article XX of the GATT, now part of the WTO, a country can restrict imports "to protect human, animal, or plant life or health" provided it does not amount to a disguised trade restriction. Reference in this connection may be made to the well-known shrimp-turtle case. A decade back, the USA put a ban on import of shrimps from Pakistan, India, Malaysia and Thailand on the ground that in these countries fishermen killed sea turtles -- an endangered species -- while netting shrimps. The ban was imposed under the US Endangered Species Act of 1973. The aggrieved countries challenged the ban in the WTO. In its ruling, the WTO Appellate Body declared that under Article XX of the GATT, countries were entitled to protect environment and human, animal and plant life. However, the Appellate Body maintained, the ban imposed by the USA was unwarranted, because the regulations to protect the environment were applied in a non-discriminatory fashion: The USA provided technical and financial assistance to the fishermen in the Caribbeans to use turtle-excluder device. However, no such assistance was provided to the complainant countries.

The significance of the WTO body ruling is that countries can restrict imports for environment preservation, provided such restrictions are applied on Most Favoured Nation (MFN) or nondiscriminatory basis.

Though attempts are being made to harmonise standards at international level, so as to ensure predictability and transparency in their application, the fact remains that countries have different standards. Industrial countries have more strict standards than developing and less developed countries. Moreover, buyers are wont to applying social and environmental requirements identical to those in vogue in their own countries. This creates problems for exporters as social and environment conditions differ from country to country. Even for identical products, there are different standards.

When it comes to complying with standards or regulations, developing countries face several problems: In the first place, it is difficult for them to keep track of fast changing standards due to scientific and technological advancement. Secondly, developing countries by and large are deficient in the capacity to comply with standards particularly, when their export markets are developed countries. The result is that their export sales are seriously affected. Thirdly, most of the exporting firms of these countries are relatively small, for whom it is not possible to make necessary compliance investments. Fourthly, when standards are applied in a discriminatory manner, these firms lack the resources to challenge such treatment. Fifthly, compliance with the standards increases the cost of production, which tends to make exports from developing countries less competitive. Sixthly, standard setting process is dominated by technical expertise from developed countries, who in most cases are reluctant to accept developing countries' measures as equivalent.

According to a UNDP report, developing countries' exports to the USA and the EU have been restricted for failure to comply with "dubious" environmental or technical standards. Moreover, the report continues, tests conducted to establish that the exports are standard compliant can cost as much as 20 per- cent of the value of the merchandise, which funds-scarce developing countries can hardly afford. The report mentions, for instance, that the rules imposed by the USA on imports to preempt terrorism, requiring prior notice to the US Food and Drug Administration, have proved enormously complex. Small exporters in particular have been unable to comply in time with such regulations.

Environment and safety standards are thus becoming a serious obstacle to international trade, particularly to market access for developing countries. It is not that developing countries are less concerned about the environment than developed countries. But the former lack the means for environment preservation. Penalising them, by denying them market access, because their products do not measure up to the difficult environment standards of developed countries will further reduce their capacity to preserve the environment. What developing countries need is technical and financial assistance from developed countries to beef up their capacity to grapple with environment issues.

The growing need to comply with standards has a lot of significance for Pakistan. Nearly 60 per cent of Pakistan's exports are destined to the USA and the EU, which have very high health and safety standards. In case of Pakistan, however, exporters either lack awareness of the need to comply with the target market's SPS and TBT standards or are deficient in the means to comply with the same. They believe, and wrongly so, that merely by offering low price products, they can penetrate a foreign market or that if they can sell sub-standard products in the domestic market, they can also export them. Hence, not surprisingly a large number of export consignments from Pakistan, particularly those of food products, are rejected at the border in developed countries for failure to meet consumer safety standards. For instance, on several occasions, export of rice and other products from Pakistan have been rejected for containing aflatoxins beyond the permissible level, which it is suspected, may cause cancer.

The foregoing calls for two things: One, creating awareness among growers or manufacturers and exporters about the need for complying with the food safety and environment standards. Two, strict quality check at both manufacturing and export stages needs to be enforced. The government must ensure that products meant for both domestic consumption and export are free of hazardous substances. Generally, the same producers or distributors that supply in the domestic market also export. If they are made to comply with food safety standards in the domestic market, they will also do so while exporting. However, if they get away with selling substandard products in the domestic market, they will, and actually do, try and export such products in foreign markets.   

There is a direct link between the growing poverty in Pakistan and the income inequalities due to distortion in tax base. The lack of judicious balance between direct and indirect taxes and levy of regressive taxes in the garb of income tax and petroleum surcharge has pushed the majority of Pakistanis towards the poverty line. According to various studies, especially those conducted by the Centre for Research on Poverty and Income Distribution (CRPID), there are 63 percent of poor in Pakistan in the category of 'transitory poor'. The State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) has also observed this in its annual reports that the standard definition of 'transitory poor' includes those households that are below the poverty line for most of the time but not always during a defined period. The rest of 32 percent and 5 percent of the population that subsist below the poverty line were found to be 'chronic' and 'extremely poor', respectively.

Chronic and extremely poor are households that are always below the poverty line, all the time during a defined period. Similarly on the other side, 13 percent and 21 percent of total non-poor (above the poverty line) were classified as 'transitory vulnerable' and 'transitory non-poor', respectively.  This portrays an alarming situation as more and more people are moving from transitory category to chronic category, courtesy regressive tax system that is the main cause of income inequalities. In egalitarian societies tax is used as a principal tool of income redistribution to reduce inequalities amongst different socio-economic strata.

Strangely, neither the CRPID nor SBP has ever tried to interlink growing poverty with prevalent oppressive tax system. It is an undeniable fact that in Pakistan, ill-directed, illogical, regressive and unfair tax system is widening the existing divides between the rich and the poor. The sole stress on indirect taxation (even under the garb of income taxation through presumptive tax regime on goods and services) without evaluating its impact on the economy and the life of poor masses is a serious cause for concern. The contribution of direct taxes as percentage of GDP was merely 2.3 percent in 2008-2009, whereas in 2007-2008 it was 2.9 percent.  The pathetic state of affairs in respect of tax-to-GDP ratio in Pakistan from 1990-2000 to 2008-09, highlighted in Table A, not only confirms inefficiency of Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) but also depicts poor share of direct taxes in overall economy.

Disastrous impact of indirect taxes (on an imported article of public consumption, the effective rate of indirect tax before any further supply is 32 percent) and levy of surcharge on POL products has crippled purchasing power of the people. Resultantly, a large segment of the middle class is being pushed into lower middle class category while the total number of persons living below the poverty line is also increasing at an alarming pace. Achieving of revenue targets, fixed ambitiously every year in utter disregard of how taxation measures affect the economy and lives of common people, is the main problem. Fixing revenue targets in isolation and without making necessary efforts to improve productivity and economic growth, has forced Pakistan into a dilemma, where it can neither afford to give any meaningful tax relief package to the common people, trade and industry (due to huge fiscal deficit] nor can it achieve a satisfactory level of economic growth (due to retrogressive tax measures). This is a vicious circle in which our policymakers find themselves trapped. They will have to find ways and means to come out of this tangle to make Pakistan a competitive haven where investors can enjoy satisfactory conditions to live and invest. In a country where there is no security of life or property, notwithstanding the availability of a host of tax benefits and other incentives, investors will never venture to risk their capital.

The total amount of income tax collected for financial year 2008-09, according to FBR, was Rs. 327 billion. If we subtract tax collected at source on goods and services/contracts/supplies which being full and final discharge is in substance, indirect levy, the real direct tax collection comes to 225 billion. After this adjustment, direct tax-to-GDP ratio for 2008-09 is dismally low at 1.8 percent and not 2.3 percent as claimed by the FBR. It proves beyond any doubt that the tax system is directly contributing to rising poverty, as people who possess enormous income and wealth are not being subjected to income taxation in Pakistan. Thus the very purpose of redistribution of wealth as the main object of taxation is being defeated.  It is pertinent to mention that in 2008 the government of Sweden collected taxes at 50 percent of GDP, almost twice as high as the total tax revenue of America and Japan, with both collecting around 25 percent of GDP. In the Euro area, tax revenue, on average, reaches 40 percent of GDP.

It hardly needs any further evidence to show that the FBR has been single-handedly destroying Pakistan's trade and industry and contributing to rising poverty by: -

Levying exorbitant sales tax and forcing the importers towards self-assumed value addition even before actual sales;

Imposing indirect taxes on goods and services under the presumptive tax regime in the garb of Income Tax Law, which is violative of Constitution of Pakistan;

Imposing withholding tax obligations without any facilitation and then taking punitive action or using the same as revenue collection tool;

Withholding under one pretext or the other, undisputed refunds payable to the taxpayers;

Making excessive tax demands which in most cases do not stand the test of appeal; and

Resorting to all kinds of negative tactics and highhandedness to meet budgetary targets.

These actions of the tax machinery are detrimental for economy, social justice, business and industry. If a given amount of revenue is needed to finance public services, then each taxpayer should contribute in line with his ability-to-pay taxes. Those who possess more economic power (income and wealth) should contribute more to the public exchequer and vice versa. The duty to pay taxes is seen as a collective responsibility rather than a personal one.

It is tragic that in a country where billions of rupees are made in speculative transactions in real estate, commodity and share markets, tax-to-GDP ratio is pathetically low (just 8.8 percent in fiscal year 2008-09). Who else but the mighty sections of society are engaged in these transactions and FBR being their handmaid has neither the will nor ability to tax them. It proves beyond doubt, the hopelessness of FBR to tap the real tax potential of the country, which is not less than Rs. 4 trillion. The definition of 'business' given in section 2(9) of the Income Tax Ordinance, 2001 covers "adventure in the nature of trade" and yet our tax machinery is sitting idle causing colossal loss to the national exchequer by not bringing adventures in the nature of trade in real estate into tax ambit and giving undue tax exemption on gains arising on speculative transactions in commodities and stocks. Our tax-to-GDP ratio can rise to 30 percent in one year if we tax absentee landlords, speculative dealings and black money.

The writers, tax lawyers, teach tax laws at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS).